Return-letter sheet.



N0. 659,2I8. Patented Oct. 9, I900.

- A. J. ELIAS.

RETURN LETTER SI-IEET.

(Application filed June 4, 1900.)

(No Model.)

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| {FROM JOHN ROE. c FROM R\CHARD DOE WASHINGTON. -7 i EUFI'ALONN.

THE NORmS PEYERS co. PnoTouTnm WASHINGTON, D c.

Nrrn TATES 'ATENT OFFICE,

ABRAHAM J. ELIAS, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

RETURN-LETTER SHEET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 659,218, dated October 9, 1900.

Application filed June 4, 1900.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ABRAHAM J. ELIAS, a citizen of the United States, and aresident of Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Return-Letter Sheets; and I do hereby declare that the following description of my said invention, taken in connection with the accompanying sheet of drawings, forms a full, clear, and exact specification, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention has general reference to improvements in return-letter sheets; and it consists, essentially, in the novel and peculiar combination of parts and details of construction, as hereinafter first fully set forth and described, and then pointed out in the claim.

In the drawings, already referred to, which serve to illustrate this invention more fully and form a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a plan of the face or outer sides of this return-letter sheet. Fig. 2 is a similar view of the inner side thereof. Figs. 3 and 4 are plan views showing the sheet folded'ready for mailing.

Like parts or portions of this return-letter sheet are designated by corresponding symbols of reference in all the figures.

The object of this invention is the production of a combined communication or inquiry and reply sheet which may be passed through the mails of the United States at the lowest rate of postage for which such a class of mail is carried, which shall require no envelop, and which when properly folded and supplied with the requiredv postage-stamp shall be practically sealed.

The reference-numeral 1 in Fig. 1 of the drawings designates a sheet of paper of suitable size to answer as a communication or inquiry and a reply sheet. It is creased vertically in its middle at 2 to divide the sheet into two portions 3 and 4 and twice horizontally on the lines 5 and 6 to enable its being readily folded, as will hereinafter more fully appear, and it is thus creased to divide each of the two pages 3 and 4 of the address .portions into three sections a, b, and c and a, b, and c. In the upper right-hand section a Serial No. 18.976. (No modeL] there is placed the address of the letterwriter. The middle right-hand section?) may be left blank or usedfor advertising purposes, while in the lower section 0 there is placed the name and address of the recipient of the inquiry. Upon the upper and lower sections of the left-hand portion 3 there are placed into the space 0 the name and address of the recipient of the letter or inquiry, and into the space a there is placed the name and address of the original-letter writer, both these names and addresses being the reverse of those appearing on portion 4, while in the middle of the left-hand section b there are placed suitable directions for folding the sheet to adapt it for a return through the mails.

In Fig. 2 there is shown the inner side of this letter-sheet, which is also divided into two portions '7 and 8, the former being adapted to receive the communication or inquiry 9 and the latter to receive the reply 10, both portions being divided by the longitudinal crease 2 and each subdivided by the horizontal creases 5 and 6. Upon the upper righthand section a and upon the lower left-hand section 0 are pasted the postage-stamps 11 and 12 in such a manner that the upper half thereof projects beyond the upper and lower edges of the sheet, respectively.

The various addresses upon the face side of the sheet may be written or printed or partly written and partly printed. So may the matter of the inner pages of the lettersheet be either entirely or partly printed, or the two pages 9 and 10 may be left entirely blank, or they may be ruled, as shown at 13, as circumstances may dictate or require, to suit the various purposes for which this combined letter and return sheet may be employed.

When this retu rn-letter sheet is being made ready for mailing, it is first doubled up along the vertical crease 2. Thenit is folded along the horizontal creases 5 and 6 in such a manner that the address of the recipient of the letter appears upon the outside, as shown in Fig. 4, the upper section a carrying the address of the sender or writer of the inquiry and the lower section 0 the address of the recipient of the communication or inquiry said upper portion being tucked into the lower section and then the unaffixed upper half of 1 the postage-stamp l2 moistened and pressed upon the section a, when the letter is practically sealed, the back of the letter being formed by the blank section I), Fig. 1. The recipient of the letter simply tears or cuts the postage-stamp upon the face of the letter and unfolds the sheet to inform himself of the subject of the inquiry. He then writes or otherwise places his reply upon the page 10 and then proceeds. to prepare the sheet for return through the mails by first folding it along the vertical crease 2 and then reversing, the horizontal creases, so that the name and address of the original writer appear in the lower section at and the address of the returner of the letter-sheet in the upper section 0, when he also tucks the u pper portion of the sheet into the lower one and affixes the free end of the postage-stamp 11, as shown in Fig. 3. Now there appears upon the back of the section b the directions for folding the sheet to adapt it for return through the mails. It will thus be seen that while this letter-sheet when folded up for mailing is virtually open, so that its contents may be inspected by the proper authorities, it is, nevertheless, and for all practical purposes sealed, because the affixing of the postage-stamp over the two overlapping sections holds them together,and th us prevents the letter-sheet from unfolding, it not being the intention to prevent an inspection ofits contents, but to so secure the folded portions that they cannot readily unfold and be thereby liable to damages or destruction while in transit through the mails.

A return-reply-letter sheet as described possesses various advantages over the usual letter-sheets, because it requires no envelop, it may be carried through the mails at a low rate of postage, and it preserves a complete record of the inquiry and the reply thereto.

impressed into the same, as in the present stamped envelops issued by the United States Post-Ofiice Department, the stamp or the franking notice may be printed or impressed upon the sections a and o. In this instance the letter when folded up is probably not quite as surely closed as it will be when a postage-stamp is used that is afiixed over the overlapping sections; but this does not otherwise detract from its usefulness as a return or reply sheet.

Having thus fully described this invention, I claim as new A combined inquiry and reply letter sheet, consisting of a single sheet having each of its two sides divided into two portions by a middle vertical fold, the outer one of the two sides being further divided into subsections, the upper and lower ones of which bear the addresses of the inquirer and the party who,

is to reply, in reverse order, as and for the object set forth, said sheet being adapted for folding and reverse folding in the manner as and for the object set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

A. J. ELIAS.

Attest:

MICHAEL J. STARK, KATE H. BRISTOL. 

